February 2018 - By Henry Quesada

Under the leadership of Drs. Henry Quesada and Earl Kline from the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials at Virginia Tech, a group of 13 students traveled to Costa Rica to learn about sustainability of natural resources. Students registered for this Wintermester course came from the Colleges of Natural Resources and Environment, Agriculture, Engineering, and Liberal Arts. During their time in Costa Rica, the students learned about sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, wildlife management, and forest management.  The logistics and educational activities were organized in conjunction with EARTH University, a private higher-level educational institution that was funded early in the 1990’s by several local and international organizations including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). During the first five days of the trip, the group stayed at EARTH University campus in Guacimo, Limon; a stunning 8,000 acres property surrounded by the rain forests and large agricultural crops such as bananas and pineapples.

For the second part of the course, the students traveled to the city of Liberia in the Costa Rican north pacific where EARTH University owns a second campus in the middle of the dried tropics, a very different location from the main campus in Guacimo. The academic efforts of the Liberia campus focus on issues such as climate change and impacts on forestry, precision agriculture, renewable energy, and irrigation.  Among other academic activities required by the course, students kept and maintained a journal where they were challenged to draw comparisons with the US and use their previous experiences and knowledge to connect the course’s learning experiences with their personal, civic, and academic perspectives.